Friday, February 18, 2011

Milford Sound

Today was the first day “at sea” in many days, so it was nice to sleep in a little. We went and had the usual breakfast and enjoyed the scenery as we went through the Doubtful Sound (doesn’t sound very good does it?).

Later we went to go to the lecture and arts & crafts workshop. We were early so I worked on posting the blog, to no avail. We enjoyed hearing more about the Maori culture and then worked on making leather bookmarks with gold paint. Somehow I forgot to take a photo of our artwork. We would soon be entering the Milford Sound, so we wanted to get our lunch, and of course that was the case with everyone else on board. We had just begun our lunch we started into the Fjords. The scenery was gorgeous and very reminiscent of Alaska.

The weather was “good” with lots of low clouds that made it seem quite eerie. Everyone was out in full force with their cameras trying to take in everything. I had to wrap Mom up in a blanket to make sure she didn’t get chilled.

I am very thankful that I brought my poncho – since you can see it’s in almost every daytime picture we’ve taken! There were beautiful waterfalls and some glacial ice that could bee seen. There were also areas where there had been landslides since the trees have a very shallow root structure.

I don’t think either one of us realized how far south we were going on this trip and the changes in temperature we have experienced. By 3:30 or so we were heading back out and it began to mist. We had ice cream and then some coffee to try and warm up a little before going in for the usual bingo and trivia. Our team placed 2nd in trivia today, which was quite good, and I was able to contribute on a few of the answers. It’s amazing how time gets away from us as we once again had to hurry back to get ready for this evening. Tonight we met Gary and Bette in the bar for a drink before dinner. Bette is the one who gives the lectures and instructs the art classes. They are very interesting people to talk to and we enjoyed their company very much.

We again had reservations in Stars tonight and invited Ann and Don to join us. They too have been on since Papeete and are from Williamsport, PA. This was their first time to Stars and they really enjoyed it. It’s an unusual dining experience in that the courses are all very small and you have 3 different items for each. They presentation is exquisite. The four of us had the best time and just about laughed until we cried. Since dinner there starts so much later, we missed the evening performance and just stopped by the bar to hear Eric play. We wrapped up a wonderful day with some great new friends and headed back to prepare for tomorrow and what the Tasman has to offer!

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just another blogger

Next stop, the Panama Canal! We will be leaving from Florida to head through the Panama Canal and up the west coast of Central America, Mexico, and finally arrive in Los Angeles in time to come home for Christmas.